It would be illegitimate to grant Aboriginal recognition to the nation’s Pingpu Aborigines, as they chose to be separated from other Aborigines throughout history, the Council of Indigenous Peoples (CIP) said yesterday.
The council said in a statement released yesterday that the Pingpu do not meet the criteria to be officially recognized as Aborigines according to the Aboriginal Identity Act (原住民身分法), and that the Provincial Government of Taiwan did not make any mistakes in its call for Aborigines to register their identity in the 1950s and 1960s, “so, the Pingpu cannot legally be granted Aboriginal status.”
Article 2 of the act stipulates that only people who had household registration in Aboriginal regions before World War II, whose parents and grandparents were Aborigines or those who registered their Aboriginal identity in the 1950s and 1960s can be recognized as Aborigines.
PHOTO: CNA
However, many Pingpu argue that they never knew about the Aboriginal registration either because their families never received the notice, or because they didn’t consider themselves “mountain people” — the official term for “Aborigines” before 1994 — since they have always lived on flat land.
“In fact, throughout the course of history from the Qing Dynasty up until now, the Pingpu chose to live with the Han people, making them different from other Aborigines,” the council’s statement said. “If they want to become part of the family now, they should respect other Aborigines and not act like the ‘homeless beggar who kicked out the temple administrator.’”
The “homeless beggar” analogy is commonly used in Taiwanese to refer to a situation in which a person tries to get rid of and take the place of someone who once helped them.
“The Pingpu claim to be Aborigines, but they do not share the same historical legacy and lack interaction with Aborigines,” the statement said. “If the Pingpu are doing so in order to gain access to resources, we would like to ask a question: Did you, the Pingpu, stand with Aborigines when the Aborigines resisted Han domination?”
The statement said the CIP was created to serve all Aborigines, but not the Pingpu.
“We sympathize with the Pingpu for the loss of their languages and culture, and believe that the government should do something to make up for the injustice that they suffered — but it’s not the CIP’s responsibility,” the statement said.
The CIP released the statement in response to a demonstration outside the council headquarters in Taipei by around 100 activists seeking Pingpu Aboriginal status.
The Pingpu are made up of various Aboriginal tribes who used to inhabit flat regions across the country.
The Pingpu “disappeared” as they were culturally assimilated by intense interaction and intermarriage with Han migrants from China over the past 400 years.
In recent decades, Pingpu activists launched a campaign to restore their tribal identity and gain government recognition of their Aboriginal status.
Tuan Hung-kun (段洪坤), convener of the Tainan County Alliance of Siraya Communities, was upset by the council’s statement.
“I wonder how they would feel and what they would say if, 10 years from now, some of the Aboriginal tribes lost their culture because they had too much interaction with non-Aborigines,” Tuan said.
Taiwan Aboriginal Society chairman Wang Ming-hui (汪明輝) of the Tsou tribe said that a government agency should not make such statements.
“Some Pingpu may have worked with the Han during history, but they were forced to do so — they didn’t have a choice,” Wang said. “The CIP should be more open-minded about what the Pingpu want.”
“I am an [officially recognized] Aborigine and I welcome my Pingpu brothers and sisters to join us,” he said.
Hong Kong-based American singer-songwriter Khalil Fong (方大同) has passed away at the age of 41, Fong’s record label confirmed yesterday. “With unwavering optimism in the face of a relentless illness for five years, Khalil Fong gently and gracefully bid farewell to this world on the morning of February 21, 2025, stepping into the next realm of existence to carry forward his purpose and dreams,” Fu Music wrote on the company’s official Facebook page. “The music and graphic novels he gifted to the world remain an eternal testament to his luminous spirit, a timeless treasure for generations to come,” it said. Although Fong’s
China’s military buildup in the southern portion of the first island chain poses a serious threat to Taiwan’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) supply, a defense analyst warned. Writing in a bulletin on the National Defense and Security Research’s Web site on Thursday, Huang Tsung-ting (黃宗鼎) said that China might choke off Taiwan’s energy supply without it. Beginning last year, China entrenched its position in the southern region of the first island chain, often with Russia’s active support, he said. In May of the same year, a Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) force consisting of a Type 054A destroyer, Type 055 destroyer,
Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) was questioned by prosecutors for allegedly orchestrating an attack on a taxi driver after he was allegedly driven on a longer than necessary route in a car he disliked. The questioning at the New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office was ongoing as of press time last night. Police have recommended charges of attempted murder. The legally embattled actor — known for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代) — is under a separate investigation for allegedly using fake medical documents to evade mandatory military service. According to local media reports, police said Wang earlier last year ordered a
Taiwan is planning to expand the use of artificial intelligence (AI)-based X-ray imaging to customs clearance points over the next four years to curb the smuggling of contraband, a Customs Administration official said. The official on condition of anonymity said the plan would cover meat products, e-cigarettes and heated tobacco products, large bundles of banknotes and certain agricultural produce. Taiwan began using AI image recognition systems in July 2021. This year, generative AI — a subset of AI which uses generative models to produce data — would be used to train AI models to produce realistic X-ray images of contraband, the official
RSS